• Art • Pop Culture • Music • Lifestyle

Menu

Tag Archive | Porcupine Tree

Happy New Year and welcome to the first Video Clip of The Week for 2018, which we are getting back to with great enthusiasm after taking an extended break over the Christmas holidays. I hope everybody had a good one. This week’s Sunday Jam comes from LA progressive rockers Perfect Beings, who offer up a curious but engaging animated clip for their song, “Mysteries, Not Answers.”

Fitting snugly in the cerebral twilight time between consciousness and sleep, “Mysteries Not Answers” is a soothing, minor chord lullaby that recalls Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson at his best. Visually, the story of an anthropomorphic Fox who falls asleep in front of the TV and dreams himself into a state of suburban fugue strikes the perfect balance of amusement and disquiet.

“Mysteries, Not Answers” can be found on Perfect Beings’ third full length release, Vier — a double album which is split into 4 distinct compositions (so prog), due out via Inside Out/Sony Music on January 19th, 2018. Enjoy!

It is no secret that I am pretty sweet on the music of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I can’t really bring anything new to the party that wasn’t already said in the post hyperlinked above, so maybe go read that for some background on my obsession and them come back and rejoin us.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer are just a magical band to me. Even though I don’t revisit their music as often as I do, say, The Beatles or Led Zeppelin, I can’t find any fault with it. I understand that smell memory has the fullest power of transportation to the past, but when I listen to ELP I feel like I’m 12 years old, discovering their music for the first time on their three disc live album that had a tri-gatefold sleeve and a title much too long to type. There is nothing on earth quite like losing yourself in Keith Emerson’s Thor-meets-the Renaissance keyboard noodling, and when I hear Greg Lake sing songs about how “The Waters Rhine Taste of Wine” (“Stones of Years”) it makes my head explode. I have all their albums and several greatest hits packages and I cannot dispense with any of it. Because I am a huge Prog Rock Nerd.

Imagine, then, how hard I geeked out when I opened a package last week from Razor & Tie Records that contained three-disc reissues of ELP’s self-titled debut album and a reissue of the group’s sophomore album Tarkus — the one with the armadillo/tank hybrid on the cover. Wow, it was like Christmas in September! I got so excited, I immediately laid them out on my rug and took pictures of them for this post!

For other completist collector record geeks out there, here is what you’re getting with each of these deluxe editions, so you can make a judgement call on whether or not you need to own them:

Disc one is the original album with original track listing

Disc two contains alternate stereo mixes and unreleased bonus tracks

Disc three is a DVD Audio disc that contains new for 2012 5:1 Mixes and new Stereo Mixes, also previously unreleased

Each set includes a color booklet with the track listings, lots of photos of the guys when they were young and hot, and lengthy historical liner notes by veteran British Rock Journalist Chris Welch. Three time Grammy-nominated producer and engineer Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree) worked from the original Greg Lake produced multi-track tapes to remix both albums, so you already know that they sound amazing.

The 3-Disc Deluxe Sets of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Tarkus will be available wherever fine music is sold or downloaded on September 25th, 2012, but you can get pre-order information and find out to get all sorts of rare ELP swag by visiting This Link.

The highly innovative Gavin Harrison of hallucination-inducing Prog Rockers Porcupine Tree is on the cover story of the January 2009 issue of Modern Drummer magazine. Inside you’ll also find my brain-dazzling updates on Pat Wilson of Weezer and Sean Davidson of LA metal band, Black List Union.

As a special New Year’s treat, here’s a preview of my Top Ten Favorite CDs of the year, to be elaborated on ad-nauseum in my upcoming 2005 Year End Rewind!

Gail’s Top Ten CDs of 2005!

1. Crash Kelly, Penny Pills (Liquor & Poker)

When I got the advance of this album last winter, I predicted that Penny Pills would be my favorite CD of the year 2006 and, no surprise here, I was right. Embracing a full-on 70s sensibility of Alice Cooper’s School’s Out and T Rex at its most glam, Penny Pills is the only drug you need.

2. Lake Trout, Not Them, You (PALM)

Baltimore’s Lake Trout bring us acid rock for the aughts and are one of the best live bands around.

3. Kasabian, S/T (RCA)

Kasabian are such a great band I can’t even believe they’re signed to a major label, let alone RCA. Which reminds me of joke:

Q: How do you stop the spread of AIDS?
A: Let BMG distribute it.

4. Eric Anders, More Regrets (Baggage Room)

Eric Anders is an obscure, independent singer songwriter whose unaffected ability to turn a phrase and otherworldly knack for arranging transcendent, melancholy melodies would have made him superstar, you know, if records still sold based on talent.

5. Porcupine Tree, Deadwing (LAVA)

I still love the Prog rock and nobody bends the mind quite like the dark masters of the genre, Steven Wilson’s Porcupine Tree.

6. Turbonegro, Party Animals (Liquor & Poker)

What’s going on up there in Scandinavia that gives bands hailing from that part of the world such superior ass kicking power in the Rock & Roll arena? Norway’s Turbonegro might say it’s a higher tolerance for alcohol.

7. The Greenhornes, East Grand Blues EP (V2)

The Greenhornes play fuzz-toned garage rock that’s impressively faithful to the sonic hallmarks of the classic British Invasion bands (Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds) and their counterparts in the original wave of American garage rock. East Grand Blues EP completely obviates the need for The Strokes to ever make another record.

8. Fear Factory, Transgression (Liquid 8)

Managing to stay authentically dangerous without becoming a parody of itself, heavy metal juggernauts Fear Factory have in Burton Bell and Raymond Herrera the best lead vocalist and the best drummer, respectively, in the genre today.

9. Black Halos, Alive Without Control (Liquor & Poker)

My hands down favorite band to see live and, individually, my very favorite group of band dudes to hang out with, Vancouver’s Black Halos sweat Rock & Roll from every pore. I just adore them.